Two teens arrested on scene of Garden District burglary; gun recovered from one

Two teens — one of whom was armed with a gun — were arrested Wednesday morning after officers with the Garden District Security District arrived on the scene of home burglary in progress, and they had stolen property from break-ins around the city on them when they were caught, New Orleans police said.

A neighbor in the 1200 block of Seventh Street heard the sound of glass breaking around 10 a.m., and when he went outside looking for the cause of it, saw movement from an unfamiliar person in the window of another home, said NOPD Sixth District Detective Corliss Conway at Wednesday’s meeting of ranking officers. The neighbor called the Garden District Security District, and when officers arrived on the scene, they called NOPD but proceeded on into the house, Conway said.

Inside, the patrol officers found two suspects hiding in a bedroom closet, attempting to conceal themselves with blankets, Conway said. When the two teens — later identified as 19-year-old Anthony Rickmon and a 16-year-old who is too young for his name to be released — were removed from the closet, officers found a gun on the floor where they had been hiding, Conway said. That gun has been determined to have been stolen in an earlier burglary elsewhere in the city, Conway said.

“It was great work by the patrol,” said NOPD Lt. Frank Young.

Police also found a backpack filled with electronics that were reported in at least three different burglaries around the city so far, Conway said, and investigators are working to identify the remainder of the items recovered. The teens were apparently waiting for a nearby pawnshop to open so they could sell the stolen goods, Conway said.